Tuesday 4/16/24
I finished five new short stories today, including the one I wrote on Saturday. How about a paragraph from one of them? Here's a paragraph:
A young doctor was smoking under the awning of the main entrance when I got back outside into the world. Alone. And he was alone. An hour of the morning when even time has reason to pinch itself to make sure it’s really there.
Yes. That's the stuff.
Two of the stories I'm going to keep reading over just in case, so that could technically be another day or two. There's a lot of nonfiction to write right now. I had mentioned having written a story maybe a week ago, and then came back and said it had gone in a different direction. What ended up happening was two stories were written--one told, presumably, by a man, about how weather is like a ghost; and the other, by a mother--a former mother. As I've said, every story is different. You don't know how it's going to be written or necessarily what it will become. The characters will tell you if you're any good. It's their story--not yours, the writer.
Would we like a schedule on here for the prose offs and the Everything wrong with publishing posts? So that a person first thing Monday morning might know that they're going up at five o'clock sharp on Friday and have something to look forward to? Then we could mostly keep to the schedule, but also not put someone up then, and they'll think, "Phew, I'm getting away with it," only to find themselves featured first thing Monday? Sunday night? That could be something.
I just heard that Jack Edwards is retiring. I'm no fan of his style--though I have heard worse--but I feel bad for him feeling the need to retire--which I think is what happened and a logical conclusion--at the age of only sixty-seven. These days, for a broadcaster, that's still very much in the thick of it. I think the job meant a great deal to him, but he he's not able to do it as he wants to do it, given whatever has happened with his speech. That can't be easy.
I will unload that car, it turns out, in Medford. They do a lot for me so I am glad.
Symphony Thursday--Mozart, Brahms--and need to do my taxes tomorrow. Ran 3000 stairs today and did 200 push-ups.